


Lead Me Home

by captainamergirl



Series: Need You Now [1]
Category: General Hospital, Port Charles
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Revelations to Come, Steve Burton is Jason Here, features original characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-17 04:41:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11844147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Even though he doesn't remember her, the pull between them is impossibly strong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the very first story in my "Need You Now" series of AU fan fictions about General Hospital and its spin-off Port Charles. It picks up in late 2011 or thereabouts.
> 
> This story predominantly focuses on Keesha and Jason and their unexpected reunion. Here are some things you need to know before you start reading the actual fic.
> 
> In my little universe ...
> 
> \- AJ is still alive. He never kidnapped Michael. Michael is un-SORAsed so at the opening of this story, he is 14 years old. AJ is married to Julia Barrett and they have a son named Trey.
> 
> \- Jason and Sam are not married and never have been or will be in this universe. After the revelation that Jason was Jake's biological father, they ended things although they are on amicable terms now.
> 
> \- Jake is dead per canon though the driver turned out to be not Luke, but instead the nefarious Lisa Niles who is now rotting in jail.
> 
> \- Keesha is (technically) still married to a powerful businessman named Damon Price but she left him some months ago because frankly, he was an evil bastard. I picture Damon as being played by Isiah Washington just FYI.
> 
> \- There is no Courtney Matthews in this universe. So Sonny has no sister that we know of. The reason I ditched her is because I am writing in scenes with PC's Courtney KANELOS and I thought two blonde Courtneys would just be too hard to tell apart lol
> 
> Other events have changed a lot in my AU universe but that's all you really need to know for now. Happy reading!

**Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting**  
  
Jason Morgan never relished going to the Quartermaine mansion. In fact, he stayed as far away from the place as he possibly could. All the family ever did anyway was fight over petty little nothings, back stab each other, and basically pressure him to be someone he simply wasn’t anymore and hadn’t been in over a decade and a half. They never changed. AJ still binge-drank like crazy despite having a little toddler son running around underfoot; Edward never stopped meddling and bellowing; Tracy never stopped scheming and harping and looking down on people; and Monica - well, she never stopped looking at him like she missed him; missed him the way he was before his accident. She missed her son Jason Quartermaine. He knew she loved him now but she had _worshiped_ the boy he used to be and in some ways, she clearly resented the man he was now.   
  
The only Quartermaine Jason truly got along with was Emily and she was technically a Quartermaine no more. Just two months ago, she had thrown caution to the wind and married the town’s biggest player, Patrick Drake. Jason had warned Patrick before the ceremony in no uncertain terms that he was not to ever break Emily’s heart and so far, he hadn’t. But it was early yet and Jason was still skeptical after hearing the stories of how Patrick had bunkered in down in nearly every single woman’s bed since coming to Port Charles. And some not-so-single women’s beds as well.  
  
Jason sighed as he pulled his bike to a stop outside the back gate, again thinking how much he hated this place. But in all honesty, he had no choice in coming here today. He needed to hide out until money-grubbing, man-hunting Courtney Kanelos lost the scent of him. She had literally followed him all across town in her Civic until he grew tired of it and drove his Harley through a tight, thorny path in the woods to be free of her. The path naturally ended at his family in blood only’s property so he had decided he would hole up here until Courtney found him again and he had to move on to still higher ground. He had tried very nicely telling the blonde that he wasn’t interested in a relationship with her but she had not backed down. He had then tried telling her rather bluntly that he wasn’t interested and she still hadn’t kept her distance. She was relentless in a way not even his best friend Carly could comprehend. In fact, the two women had gotten into more than one knock-down drag out fight over Courtney’s tenacious pursuit of Jason.  
  
He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he turned off the motorcycle’s engine and kicked the stand into place. He then walked towards the main house, wondering which of his estranged relatives he would encounter first and which one would end up making him feel that facing Courtney was a slightly more tolerable fate. He hoped Emily would be visiting today but he had a feeling, he wouldn’t be that lucky.  
  
He was walking towards the back patio door when he heard what sounded like wheezing coming from some distance away. He instinctively paused in his tracks and tilted his head in the direction the sound was coming from.  
  
Soon enough, he spotted a chocolate-skinned boy of about eight or nine years hurrying through the rose garden, headed for the back door Jason had been about to stop through. The boy was not wheezing and the only sign of distress was in his dark eyes as he raced inside. Soon enough he started screaming, “Mom, _Mom!_ Mel’s having one of her attacks again!”  
  
Jason overheard that and immediately took off looking for this “Mel”, trying to gauge where exactly she was. As he rounded a corner, he spotted a slight girl, probably no more than twelve years in age, leaving heavily against the wall of the boathouse, using her left hand as a brace to keep herself upright while the other hand clutched her chest.  
  
Jason hurried to her side and instinctively reached out and grasped her arm lightly. “Hey, you’re going to be okay. I’m going to take you inside and find someone to help you."  
  
He tried to think about just how he was going to get her into the house - especially with the way she was looking at him distrustfully - and finally decided he was just going to have to carry her, whether she liked it or not. She was in no condition to walk herself or even protest.  
  
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you but I need to get you inside right now,” he said and scooped her up into his arms. Her lean legs dangled loose over his biceps as he broke into a sprint towards the mansion. She was practically feather light in his grasp. He felt an odd, inexplicable connection to her. He could never have verbalized it or even explained it to himself, but something inside of him told him that he had to make sure this girl was safe.  
  
By the time he had reached the door of the mansion, Quartermaines and household staff members alike were assembled in the living room. He pushed his way through the throng just in time to see a familiar face on the other side of the room burst through the crowd of worried onlookers. All he could think to say was one thing:  
  
 _“Keesha ...”_  
  
His voice came out sounding a bit awed and breathless even to his own ears but he told himself he was just breathless from running so fast.  
  
Keesha’s dark eyes held his for the briefest of seconds before she focused them on her daughter. She gestured to the grand leather sofa and Jason lightly set the girl down on it. There was soon a flurry of activity as the doctors in the family descended upon the group, pushing a worried Jason to the back of the room where he could barely see anything that was going on.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Jason knew the young girl was going to be okay when everyone began clearing out of the living room about twenty minutes later. They had seen "the show" and were apparently bored now. The little girl would be just fine. Jason himself was glad for that.  
  
His eyes drifted back to Keesha who was talking to her daughter in dulcet tones. “You know if you’re feeling out of breath, honey, you need to sit down and rest. You also need to keep your inhaler in your pocket and -”  
  
The little girl nodded and leaned into her mother, silencing her. “I know, I know. I won’t do that again.”  
  
“I hope not. You scared your little brother half to death.” She looked at the boy who was hovering in the door way looking on nervously. She patted the seat next to her and he scurried over. “Its okay, Thomas, our Melanie is just fine.”  
  
“Yeah, I’ll live to see another day,” Melanie said facetiously and her mother just shook her head before finally turning to look at Jason, piercing him somewhere down deep with the emotion in her eyes.  
  
“Thanks to Jason, you’re okay now,” she said. She turned back to look at Melanie. “Don’t you have something to say?”  
  
Melanie obediently turned around on the sofa to look at Jason. Her eyes were clear and bright as she said, “Thanks. I don’t even know who you are but thanks.”  
  
“Jason is ...” Keesha titled her head, seeming to think over what she was going to say. She tucked a strand of ever-curly black hair behind her ear, a nervous habit he remembered her having whenever they spent any time together after their breakup. He hadn’t been able to remember loving her back then but he still remembered the quiet things about her that made her who she was.  
  
Keesha finally said, “Jason is Edward’s grandson and an old friend of our family’s.”  
  
Jason was oddly, unnecessarily, and inexplicably disappointed by Keesha’s description of him. He watched her for a moment before chiming in, “Yeah, your mom and I are just old friends...”  
  
“Oh come on, little brother, be honest here. You and Keesha were a lot more than friends, a helluva lot more.”  
  
Jason shook his head as AJ walked - or rather, stumbled into the room. A half-empty tumbler of bourbon was clutched in his fist. “AJ,” Jason said in tone that held intense warning. “Drop it.”  
  
AJ grinned cockily, knowing he had everyone’s full attention now.  
  
“Kids, you have to know - Jason isn’t telling you the whole story.”  
  
“Shut up, AJ,” Jason bit out.  
  
AJ smirked at him. “Oh come on, Jason, don’t you want them to know? Don’t you want them to fawn all over your poor brain-damaged self like everyone else does? Don’t they have a right to know that you loved their mother until you forgot all about her after I drove you headfirst into a tree? I wouldn’t think you would want to pass up the chance to be martyred in their young eyes as you are in the rest of the world’s.”  
  
Jason could have and would have punched his brother but the children were watching, their eyes now wide and full of questions. They both turned to look at their mom, curious to hear how she would respond to AJ’s revelations. Jason, in spite of himself, was curious about the very same thing.   
  
His eyes came to rest on Keesha once again. She licked her full, bee-stung lips nervously. Another oddly endearing habit of hers. He suddenly remembered the way those lips of hers had felt on his neck years ago, the way they had tasted on his own, the night they said goodbye for what he believed was the very last time...  
  
TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**  
  
 _“I can’t -- I can’t make you any promises,” he said quietly as he watched her pulling on her rumpled stockings. She sat at the very end of the mattress and kept her back to him. He wanted to reach out to her for a moment there, the way he had the night before, but he thought better of it. It was best not to muddy the waters any more than he already had.  
  
She nodded her head. “I know. I would never ask you to, Jason. We can just chock up last night to a bit of insanity and too much booze.”  
  
She then grabbed her purse, strung it over her lean shoulder, and headed for the door. She looked back at him once and said, “I wish you all the best.”  
  
And then she was gone. Really gone. He learned the next day that she had left town. He didn’t know how he was supposed to feel about all of it so he had chosen to feel nothing at all. He pushed every memory of that night out of his mind completely._  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Jason looked at Keesha for another brief but potent moment, immediately recognizing her discomfort. He then turned back to face AJ. “AJ, just get out of here. Do you really think these kids need to see you like this? What about your son? He could come in here any minute. Do you want him to see his dad drunk?” His fists instinctively balled at his sides. “Just go.”  
  
AJ laughed as if that was the funniest thing he had ever heard. “You think you can just come in here and throw ultimatums around, Jason? You don’t even live here and haven’t in years. Just because you play Superman for Keesha’s kid doesn’t mean you’re a hero in my eyes. Maybe the kids would like to know exactly what you do for a living…”  
  
 _“AJ, stop it!”_ The words surprisingly didn’t come from Jason but rather from the doorway where a familiar blonde stood glaring at them. Julia Barrett-Quartermaine looked about as pleased to hear AJ’s drunken rant as Jason felt.  
  
AJ whirled around, avoiding somehow falling over in the process. “Ah, my dear wife, home from the trenches so soon?”  
  
Julia looked uncomfortable about the way AJ was carrying on but she also looked like she was not going to put up with it. “AJ, I need to speak with you upstairs.”  
  
“Oh come on, Jules, join the party. Jason saved the day. He saved Keesha’s daughter from an oh-so-serious asthma attack. We aren’t done heaping on the adulation yet here.”  
  
Julia sighed. “AJ, come with me. _Now._ Or else.”   
  
“Or else what?”  
  
“I will have Alice forcibly remove you from this room and carry you upstairs.” She looked embarrassed at even having to make such a pathetic threat but she must have sensed Jason was ready to rip his brother limb from limb and was trying to save her husband. Not that AJ deserved to be rescued after all that he had done to destroy people’s lives over the years.  
  
“Oh no. Not Big Alice,” AJ said mockingly. He then looked around the room, dark eyes zeroing in on Jason. “But I am done here anyway. This is one tough crowd. They can’t take a joke.” He then followed Julia out of the living room. The door was shut then and Jason sighed before turning to look at the three pairs of eyes zeroed in on him.  
  
“Sorry you had to hear that,” he said stiffly.  
  
“Is he your brother?” Melanie asked. “Really? You two don’t seem much alike.”  
  
Jason nodded. “He’s my brother. So they tell me.”  
  
He hadn’t intended it to be a joke but Melanie and her brother snickered anyway. It seemed to help lighten their moods. Their mother on the other hand, though, she was stiff as a board sitting between them on the sofa. He realized he had to say something.  
  
“Keesha, I’m sorry about what just happened.”  
  
Keesha glanced at him, ever so briefly before turning back to face her children. “It’s alright. I know better than anyone that family relationships can be very complicated.” She stood up, her arm lightly and accidentally brushing Jason’s as she moved past him. The only indication she had noticed their physical contact was the widening of her coal eyes and the slight shifting of her already taut shoulders.  
  
“Come on, kids, we have things to do before dinner.”  
  
“Like what?” Thomas asked, finally speaking up for the first time since he had alerted everyone to Melanie’s attack.  
  
“We need to finish unpacking,” Keesha said.  
  
Jason felt his chest tighten by no will of his own. “How long are you staying in town?” He found himself asking.  
  
Keesha looked at him now, but only because it seemed she felt she had to do so to be polite. “I am not sure actually.” She beckoned to her children. "Let’s go upstairs.”  
  
The children both sighed as they climbed off of the sofa. AJ had started weaving a good story for them and like any curious kids; they had wanted to know how it ended. But they weren’t going to find out today, Jason guessed. It was truthfully better that they didn’t hear anymore.  
  
“Thanks again, Mister,” Melanie said, piercing him with a sweet, impish smile before the three of them slipped out of the living room.  
  
Jason sighed and pulled his keys out of his pocket. He hoped by now Courtney Kanelos had lost track of him or given up looking for him so he could head back to his penthouse for a while before he had to head down to the docks late tonight to oversee an incoming shipment.  
  
He had always preferred solitude but tonight the thought of going home to an empty place suddenly, strangely, left him feeling out of sorts.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Jason noticed that sunlight was fading away and darkness was falling all around him as he walked out of the Quartermaine mansion and headed to his bike. He climbed onto it and was just about to start the engine when he heard a familiar voice calling his name.  
  
"Jason, _wait!”_ Monica Quartermaine hurried to his side, now slightly breathless. “You’re leaving already?”  
  
Jason nodded. “Yeah.”  
  
Monica looked disappointed and again he knew that she was thinking of the boy he must have been, the one who spent time with his family and relished being in their presence. That boy simply wasn’t anymore but Jason was not sure Monica would ever truly accept that fact.  
  
“Well you came for some reason. I didn’t get to ask why though with the uproar going on all around us.”  
  
Jason didn’t want to admit he had been running from someone - a petite ninety-five-pound blonde woman, no less - so he shrugged and said, “I was just passing through and thought I’d stop by and see if Emily was visiting.”  
  
Monica shook her head. “No, she’s on duty at the hospital tonight. But it’s a good thing you did come or Keesha’s daughter might not have been so lucky.”  
  
“Someone would have found her,” he said quietly but thought again how right carrying her in his arms had felt; how he had been so sure that he would be broken if she didn’t make it.  
  
“But you did,” Monica said. “And I know Keesha and everyone else is grateful.”  
  
Jason nodded. “When did Keesha get into town?”  
  
“Last night,” Monica replied. “It was unexpected, to say the least. She just showed up on the doorstep with her two children asking if she could stay with us. AJ was being impolite and Tracy was being downright bigoted and rude but Edward insisted they stay and so here they are. For however long it lasts. It’s a blast from the past seeing Keesha again. She looks very much the same though.”  
  
Jason nodded but said nothing. It was true. She looked a bit older, a bit more refined than before, a bit less comfortable in her own skin, but she was still incredibly beautiful. He could never deny that.  
  
“Her kids are sweet,” Monica said. She shook her head. “Anyway, I suppose you have to go now.”  
  
“Yeah, actually I do.”  
  
“Well we liked seeing you here. At least I did,” Monica amended, obviously thinking of AJ’s disapproval. “Come back soon. We miss you a lot.”  
  
“I will come by again sometime,” Jason promised as he gunned the engine. He watched Monica, heard her whisper “drive safely”, then jammed down on the gas pedal, and then he was off into the chill December night.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Keesha had just tucked her children into bed for the night and was heading to her own room when she spotted Julia approaching her. She knew very little of the woman but she could recognize the hesitancy in Julia’s large blue eyes, as if it was painful for her to have to come and say whatever she was going to say.  
  
“I’m sorry for earlier today,” Julia spoke up. “I talked to AJ and he swore to me that he wouldn’t pull a stunt like that again. At least not in front of your children.”  
  
Keesha nodded. “They’ve seen far worse,” she admitted though she hadn’t intended to say that much. Her past was supposed to be kept in the past. She had told Edward she was separating from her husband but not why. She didn’t want anyone to know the truth. Truthfully, Port Charles was the last place she had ever wanted to come but necessity had dictated she do just that. She had to believe her beloved children were safest here.  
  
Julia watched her questioningly as they fell into step with each other down the hall but fortunately, she didn’t press the issue. Instead, she said, “AJ’s just having a hard time dealing with … some things that have come up recently.”  
  
 _It's an excuse._ Keesha recognized one when she heard it. She had made them over and over again for years. She knew AJ was nothing like Damon when push came to shove but wives shouldn’t have to cover for their husbands' behavior. Their husbands should have to own up to their mistakes. However, in Keesha’s experience, few ever did. Instead, the wife ended up having to do what Julia was doing now – trying to make peace and restore some kind of order to their world.  
  
“I am sorry to see he’s drinking again,” was all Keesha could think to actually say.  
  
Julia nodded. “I am as well. He had truthfully stopped once our son was born two years ago but then … Well, he just … I suppose the expression is he fell off the wagon. He had his reasons but –“ Julia broke off for a moment, seeming to mull over what she wanted to say, _how_ much she wanted to say.  
  
Finally she splayed her hands and said, “I suppose you’re going to find out anyway. It’s no longer a secret.”  
  
“You don’t have to tell me anything.”  
  
Julia shook her head. “As I said, it’s a secret no more. You see … I have a son.”  
  
“You mentioned you and AJ have one.”  
  
“Well yes… _Trey._ He’s so wonderful. The sweetest little boy. Very much unlike his parents,” Julia quipped but there was hollowness rather than humor in her voice. “I love him so much. He was AJ’s and my gift. The thing that really brought us back together … But he’s not my only son.”  
  
Keesha raised an eyebrow unconsciously. “Oh.”  
  
“Yes, oh... It’s a very long story but the Reader's Digest version is that when I left town back in 1993, I was pregnant. With AJ's cousin Ned’s child.” Julia paused to let the news sink into Keesha’s consciousness. “I made a choice to give up the baby when he was born. Right or wrong, no one ever knew, not even my sister Brenda. It was my best kept secret really. I always wondered, of course, where my child was, if he was loved, healthy, protected. Of course I had to wonder but it was a closed adoption so I had no way of finding out. But then about three months ago, my first son – his name is Cooper - showed up on the doorstep – literally – wanting to connect with me. He had turned over every rock and stone to find me and a whole can full of worms immediately exploded upon his arrival. Things … Well, they haven’t been the same. I am glad to finally know Cooper, so glad actually, but AJ is angry especially since he hates Ned and vice versa and even more so, I was involved with AJ shortly before Ned and I reconnected for one night. AJ considers it a betrayal and he can’t forgive me. He never forgives anyone.”  
  
Keesha averted her eyes from Julia’s. Their stories were a bit too similar though with very different outcomes. Keesha couldn’t help but think about the bad decisions she herself had made - ones that were still hurting everyone around her.  
  
Julia cleared her throat. “Sorry to unload all of that sordid backstory on you but as I said, it’s no longer a secret. Rather it is just the wedge in my marriage.”  
  
Keesha nodded. “It’s alright.”  
  
Julia nodded at her and then walked away, soon slipping into a room at the end of the long hall. Keesha knew where AJ’s room was and it wasn’t that one. It was safe to assume that Mr. and Mrs. Quartermaine were no longer sleeping together. It wasn’t her business but Keesha couldn’t help but wonder how her many secrets would affect everyone if they ever came out. She resolved then that she would only stay in Port Charles long enough to get back on her feet and then she would leave before any more true damage could be done because of her.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED.


End file.
